LEADING
the team of expert defence witnesses was Professor
Richard Evans, author of the book In Defence of
History. Charged with the mission of destroying Mr
Irving's legitimacy as an historian, for which he was paid
two years' salary as a reward, Evans submitted a 740-page
expert report, accompanied by sixteen ring-binders of
documents. The report was less impressive than it might
seem, judged purely by its length and weight. Evans had no
trouble publishing a book based on his report in other
countries, but in the U.K. his publishers rightly feared the
consequences, obliging the U.S. publisher Basic Books Inc.
to leap in and take over. Basic Books, the distributors, and
Prof. Evans will find that the Defamation Act has not lost
its sting. Mr Irving has written on Saturday, February 9,
2002 warning them . . .

It has come to my attention that you intend to distribute
within the jurisdiction of the English High Court your
polemical book Lying About Hitler. The publisher is
announced as the U.S. publisher Basic Books; U.K. publishers
have properly rejected it for fear of libel action.

This letter puts you on notice that we hold the work as
published in the United States to be libellous, and that it
will be the subject of action in defamation if published
unaltered in this jurisdiction. I have no objection to its
publication if the defamatory untruths are taken out, but I
remind you that the book's commissioning publisher, the
reputable U.K. firm of William Heinemann, Ltd., refused to
publish it on the report of their own legal advisers
(without any initiative from myself), and that Granta have
evidently dropped it for the same reason: see The
Guardian, attached.

I strongly advise you to obtain Counsel's opinion, as I
have, on the defamatory content of this book. Please
acknowledge receipt of this letter.